Retired Teacher Zhao Yong from Inner Mongolia Dies in Prison

14 May 2005

Mr. Zhao Yong was a retired teacher who lived in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He had been detained numerous times because he practised Falun Dafa. During the time he was confined in the Hohhot City Second Prison, his liver disease reoccurred. However, the prison administration refused him medical parole, and he died in April 2005.

Mr. Zhao Yong was 63 years old, a retired teacher from the Baotou City Railroad Worker's School. He started cultivating Falun Dafa in 1996, and thereafter developed a healthy body with all his previous illnesses eliminated. After July 20, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Dafa began, his home was ransacked. Police arrested and detained him for 30 days in the Donghe District Detention Centre. He was arrested again on December 13, 2000, and this time was sentenced to one year of forced labour. On May 17, 2003, his home was ransacked a third time, and he was arrested again. He was sentenced to a three-year prison term in the Hohhot City Second Prison. During his confinement in the prison, he was repeatedly mistreated, severely weakening both his physical and mental state. As a consequence of this harsh treatment, his liver problems reoccurred. When he was dying, his family applied to have him bailed out on medical parole. The local 610 Office (1) and government officials deliberately delayed the approval process, and Mr. Zhao Yong died inside the Hohhot City Second Prison on April 29, 2005.